About this project

$110,128

485

VACHEN

The age of the smartwatch begins now. Undoubtedly, the next battleground market for the two giants in the smartphone industry will be wearable smart devices, the epitome of which is the “Smartwatch”.

VACHEN is approaching this new market from a fresh angle. Rather than making a smart device to which clock functions have been added, Vachen has decided to make a watch to which simple and necessary smart features have been added.

VACHEN is first and foremost a watch. But its basic functions as a traditional watch have been upgraded: VACHEN Smart movement is an advanced step beyond quartz movement.

VACHEN’s strongest point is speed. We have the ability to launch new models faster than any other company. A new model will be released every 45 days.

VACHEN’s vision is a new ecosystem. A new market will open where anyone can design their own fabulous watchface using an authoring tool as well as buy and sell VACHEN Smartwatches. VACHEN Smartwatch will generate a new, independent brand collaboration market that has never existed before.

VACHEN uses Google Android as its heart. Google Android also gave us the gift of openness. Openness with VACHEN Smartwatch also means openness in accessories, watchface designs, cases, bands, brands, apps, platforms, and authoring tools, and the open ecosystem means that a number of people can work together and enjoy the fruits of collaboration.

VACHEN Smart movement, the core of VACHEN Smartwatch, will also be open to everyone. We hope that great watch designers and watch brands will begin to use VACHEN Smart movement for their work.

If it is just smart, not fashionable, leave it behind!

VACHEN Smartwatch

Complete Fashion statement

You wear a watch not only to tell time, but also to make a statement to others. A watch is the finishing touch on fashion. VACHEN Smartwatch makes the perfect fashion statement every time—the variable watchfaces and bands are always in style.

VACHEN Smartwatch - A Real Watch

The elegance and functionality of VACHEN is along the lines of a digital clock on a smartphone, rather than an analog clock. VACHEN places a digital clock in a beautiful watch case and puts it on your wrist. The VACHEN Smartwatch is a real watch you can wear that is as much a piece of jewelry as it is a smart device.

Fashion Item

Match with Casual Wear

Match with Formal Wear

Stylish

With Swarovski Crystals

Watch Backlight in the Dark

Match with Sportswear

Lap Time While Driving

Changing Watchfaces

Changing Straps

Watchfaces

VACHEN Smartwatch will provide more than 100 square and circular watchface designs. You can easily download them from the VACHEN store and add them to your VACHEN Smartwatch.

Downloading 100+ watchfaces

More...

Authoring Tools

We will also provide authoring tools you can use to make your own fun and creative watchface. You can decorate a watchface with your own photos, designs, and favorite people, and always carry them on your wrist. Other people can access a design you’ve made through the VACHEN store. VACHEN Smartwatch watchfaces can be shared with anyone.

Download watchface design SDK, upload your watchface design.

Brand Collaboration

Any wonderful brand logo can be used as a VACHEN watchface.

VACHEN Development Story

We drew inspiration for our product from Apple’s 6th Generation iPod Nano. Even from Apple’s perspective, however, the watch function on this device felt unrealized, and like a prototype. To truly be serviceable as a watch -- and a smartwatch at that -- this kind of device had several technological barriers which have yet to be overcome, until now. It needed a more stylish case, communication capability, smarter features, a longer lasting battery, and a more diverse variety of case designs and watchfaces.

So, in 2011 we began developing the VACHEN Smartwatch for use with Android Eclair. However, the phone, music, storage and GPS chip in our early models were scrapped during development. In trying these kind of overloaded commercial smartwatches ourselves, we found that too many functions made performance suffer, offering more novelty than lasting, practical value. At this point, we agreed that using a regular smartphone was a better option than our battery consuming early generation smartwatches.

After debating a range of opinions, we reached an important conclusion: A watch is still a very necessary, very important fashion item. At that point, we shifted our efforts to developing the VACHEN Smartwatch into a fashion item capable of assuming numerous, unique designs. And this led us to Smart Movement, which is the same as the clockwork movement of a regular watch.

In order to develop the Smartwatch into a true fashion item, a number of technological dilemmas had to be solved. To pull off the image of an attractive wristwatch, the Smartwatch had to maintain a sleek frame while offering ample battery life. Exchangeable cases were a must, but this could not interfere with the Smartwatch’s capability to communicate. Another concern was heat. We couldn’t allow heat emitted from the Smartwatch to bother the wearer’s wrist.

First, we had to solve the battery life issue. We designed the first generation Smartwatch to hold a battery with a life of 400mAh, boosted this up to 700mAh during mass production, and consistently reduced its electricity consumption, enabling it to be powered on over two to four days.

Secondly, we succinctly merged the case architecture and antenna technology to allow the Smartwatch to switch seamlessly from one case to another without affecting its communication capability — just one example of our knowledge in smart technology and watch design. Lastly, we centered a stainless steel heat sink panel at the heart of the Smartwatch to cool things down. This heat sink panel runs across the entire width of the Smart movement, and via its conductive casing, allows heat to disperse safely in all directions.

VACHEN Core Team

VACHEN is a startup company composed of people passionate about watches and smart devices. We take care in planning and design in both the United States and Korea, and do our manufacturing in Korea.

Creating a smart device requires lots of know-how — and we have it:

Seockwon Lee, as Team Leader of VACHEN Smartwatch, is in charge of marketing and software planning. He brings with him extensive experience in the fields of software architecture and marketing.

Another of our Technical Leaders is Jung Hoon Kim. He implements his vast knowledge on mobile device manufacturing technology learned at Nokia Korea to coordinate the entirety of the Smartwatch developmental process.

Won Rhee started out as a researcher at Phillips Semiconductor, and assists in product planning, product testing and design.

Chan Seok Park is our engineer with considerably dynamic experience in the field of wireless communication technology. Any company involved in smart technology would be hard pressed to duplicate his accomplishments in the areas of communication and mechanical design. He is the one who applied optimized Wi-Fi technology to the Smartwatch.

Jung Hyun Park gained experience in mobile device design while at Samsung Electronics. He currently runs his own design company and is taking full charge of the development of the Smartwatch case and watchface design.

Smart Device

Android Gingerbread and Wi-Fi

VACHEN Smart Movement has Android Gingerbread, optimized for watch function, as its heart and uses a brain of 1 GHz. By applying low power Bluetooth and optimized Wi-Fi communication technology, it goes beyond the usual limitations of Bluetooth. If you need to communicate between VACHEN Smartwatches via Wi-Fi technology, it can be enabled at any time.

Battery Life

The battery in the VACHEN Smartwatch is equipped with the current maximum capacity and battery optimization technology that allows the VACHEN Smartwatch to maintain sleep mode for 120 hours. As a result of the innovative design, the anti-heat technology prevents heat generated by battery and display from bothering the wearer.

Specification

Android OS Gingerbread

Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and 4.0 (Low Energy)

Wi-Fi 2.4GHz

1.54', 240

240 resolution TFT LCD, 65k color, Single touch panel

Li-Polymer battery

3-Axis accelerometer with gesture detection

Water resistant

Haptic vibrating motor

Smart Functions

Changing watchfaces

Downloading 100+ watchface designs via VACHEN store

Connecting to smartphone, Android and iPhone

Call, SMS, E-Mail, SMS haptic notification

Stopwatch, Alarm, Timer

Compass, Moon Data, Tide graph

Google calendar alerts

Loss prevention of smartphone

Emergency call

Action control for smart TV and smartphone

Developing Technology

VACHEN Smartwatch’s built-in 3-Axis accelerometer combined with Wi-Fi technology will enable motion control which can manipulate a variety of smart devices through motion. An NFC-mounted model will soon be released making payments possible with the swipe of a finger.

Mass Production

Reliable Mass Production System

VACHEN Smartwatch has accomplished mass production while succeeding in maintaining independence over Smart movement technology and case design. Most smart devices have difficulty in mass production because exterior materials and designs cannot fulfill diverse built-in features.

Plans for Mass Production

Up to the present, we have undergone three rounds of pilot product development. The product you see in our main video is the 3rd prototype of our final pilot product. Over these three rounds of pilot product development we have made countless changes to the Smartwatch’s overall composition and function. Now, to permit mass production, we have settled on a final product design and completed the fabrication of a mock-up case.

Our main focus now lies on making preparations for procuring parts needed for mass production, on the development of software, apps and platforms, and on watchface design.

We are scheduled to begin preparations for mass production in May. Four molds for the watch case, which entails the longest manufacturing time of any Smartwatch part, are scheduled to be finished by June. Therefore, we are planning to mass produce, test, and distribute our first Smartwatches in July.
The Swarovski Crystal woman’s Smartwatch requires additional decorative processes, and is scheduled for distribution in August.

Molds for our titanium cases demand extra effort as they are made through a process of powder compression, and occasionally mold shrinkage may occur. Consequentially, it is unavoidable that we will have to make corrections to our molds several times before finding the exact design desired. Accounting for several corrections to our titanium molds, we predict it will be possible to distribute these Smartwatches by mid-September.

We have now decided on a company to mass produce our Smartwatches. It is located in Seoul, Korea.

User Interface

VACHEN Smartwatch is designed to obtain desired results through minimal user interface. You can change and fix watchfaces with simple touch actions.

Intelligent Backlight On

To optimize battery life, VACHEN Smartwatch is not always turned on. The Intelligent Backlight On feature has been adopted to automatically turn on the VACHEN Smartwatch when necessary.

Connect to Your Smartphone

The VACHEN Smartwatch delivers the status of incoming calls, email, and text messages received on a smartphone straight to your wrist through haptic vibration. This feature alone will free you from your smartphone more than you can imagine.

Charge the Battery

The VACHEN Smartwatch comes with a charging cradle. The cradle is charged via micro USB and acts as a comfortable bed for your VACHEN Smartwatch.

Smartwatch Apps

With the VACHEN Smartwatch, you can use Smartwatch-dedicated Android apps. We currently provide several convenient apps, but expect developers to provide many more in the near future.

Technology

VACHEN Smart Movement

VACHEN Smart movement is the integration of VACHEN technology and the core of every Smartwatch. VACHEN Smart movement is a watch movement completely independent of a watch case, and is currently waiting to be chosen by the finest watch designers and manufacturers. A variety of sensors and communication technology can be set to VACHEN Smart movement.

Product Models

Ladies' Metal Case with Swarovski Crystals

Men's Metal Case

Men's Aluminum Case

Men's Circular Watchface Titanium Case

Service

Exchange New Parts

The VACHEN Smartwatch consists of a watch band, bezel, case, and VACHEN Smart movement technology. If your bezel or case breaks, it can be easily replaced. If you have a problem with VACHEN Smart movement, you can rest assured it will be replaced as well.

Prototype video

Changing Watchfaces

1st Gen. Pilot Product (2013. 1)

3rd Pilot Product (2013. 4)

Menu User Interface

Roulette Game App

Stopwatch App

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Risks and challenges

1. To maintain the high quality of our product, a reliable manufacturer in Korea is making our watches. This may result in a slight delay when delivering the product to you.

2. It will take some time for us to upload new watchfaces because some time is needed to build a web store environment in which you can upload and download watchfaces, but we will do our best to do this as quickly as possible.

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Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

$5000 pledge for backers who are interested in visiting the VACHEN headquarter in Seoul, Korea.
It will include participating in the VACHEN smartwatch workshop and visiting VACHEN’s manufacturing factory. Three days of hotel fees will be included.
We’ll also give the backer a VACHEN smartwatch with the backer’s name engraved, two straps, and a cradle.